Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Flash Mob Alert!

Wikipedia, the source of changeable facts, says that a "flash mob" is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communications networks...or so says Wikipedia.

I have it on reliable authority that a flash mob is being organized for tomorrow (Wednesday) in New York in front of the studio where The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tapes.

The epicenter of this particular flash mob is the noted director and animator, Terry Gilliam. Mr. Gilliam is not on tomorrow's Daily Show but for reasons I won't pretend to understand, he's going to be outside the studio tomorrow around 4:45 in the afternoon for 30-45 minutes. He'll be chatting with anyone who's around and passing out flyers for his new movie, Tideland, which opens on Friday the thirteenth.

The Daily Show studio is located at 733 11th Ave. at 51st St. The person who tipped me off to this reminds all that The Daily Show will be letting audience members in for their taping so it's important to be polite and to not interfere with that. If I were in Manhattan, I'd be there for it. If one of you goes, let us know what happens.

• Posted at 9:32 PM · LINK

Magic Kingdom Stuff

Hey, you like souvenirs and artifacts relating to Disneyland? You don't? Well then, you won't want to click on this link and see some photos of a nice collection that's for sale.

• Posted at 4:55 PM · LINK

Must See ME TV

The episode of Deal or No Deal that aired last night was the one my pal Len Wein and I saw taped, as described here. Needless to say, it looked a lot smoother on NBC than it did in the studio. It also ran sixty minutes as opposed to the five-plus hours it took to actually tape the thing.

The tightening made for a bit more suspense but there was only so much the editors could do to enhance what were basically uninteresting games. Sometimes, the big amounts go unpicked for a long time so throughout the game, there's a mounting chance that the contestant could walk out with a check with a lot of digits on it. And sometimes, the million simolians gets knocked out early on, and the six figure amounts also disappear...so the excitement just isn't there. When we were there, it just wasn't there.

Not much more to report. Above, I've posted a frame grab that shows where we were sitting. As you can see, I've lost a lot of weight and Len has his customary silly expression on his face. I can never take him anywhere.

• Posted at 1:10 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Someone assembled this montage that runs a little under four minutes. It's Alfred Hitchcock's cameos in most of the movies he directed.

To the horror of many film buff friends, I've never been a huge fan of Hitchcock movies. I walked out on The Birds and I've often thought that if the exact same film had been made by Roger Corman, everyone else would have joined me. Psycho was a tremendous disappointment...but then by the time I got around to seeing it, it had been so overhyped and oversold, it couldn't have lived up to its reputation. Some of his later films, like Frenzy, really annoyed me...but even most Hitchcock fans can't stand his later films.

I liked some of his earlier films (Rope, to name one) and North by Northwest....but not to the extent that I ever understood the esteem in which some held him. It always seemed to me to have a lot to do with personal promotion (such as in the cameos in this compilation) and the fact that he was a colorful, interesting figure off-camera.

By the way, I met Mr. Hitchcock once for, literally, about a minute. In August of 1969 — in one of my first professional assignments and perhaps my peak — I was hired by Universal Studios to write script for the guides who conducted their tour. This is back when the tour was actually a tour of a functional, operating TV/movie studio as opposed to the rolling amusement park ride it is today. Anyway, I spent a few fun days just wandering the backlot, taking notes and trying to figure out what bits of trivia should be pointed out to people who took the tours.

At one point, I was loitering in front of a small building, right in front of a door, and I heard someone behind me. I turned around and there was Alfred Hitchcock, looking amazingly like Alfred Hitchcock, coming out that door and finding me in his way. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be standing there" and scurried to one side. I guess he didn't hear me because he held out his hand, which I shook, and said, "A pleasure to meet you, sir." I said the pleasure was mine and because I didn't know what else to say, I said, "On your way to the set?" He said, "No, I have to go to what I'm sure will be a very boring meeting with a lot of very boring people who will say boring things." Some boring reply came out of me and then he went on his way, waddling off down the studio street. I remember thinking, "Alfred Hitchcock just did a cameo in my life."

Here are most of the cameos he made in his motion pictures. It was a nice, self-promotional gimmick even if it does now make some of his films feel like a Where's Waldo? book.

• Posted at 12:05 AM · LINK